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Ken Lakritz, Ph.D. 3-16-25 The collective leanings toward authoritarianism and fascism continue to dumbfound the body politic as the world devolves into uprisings of autocratic and religious nationalist regimes. In a society allegedly committed to reasoned calculations for solving complex social and economic problems, many find themselves mystified that we are electing leaders whose calculus and decision making defies reasoned discourse as it inflicts more pain on the sufferi

Kenneth R Lakritz, Ph.D 11-12-2020 Awareness is sharpening that we coexist in a society increasingly polarized by tribal division, information ecosystem bubbles, and socioeconomic stratification- intensified by conscious agendas to actively reinforce the chasm between sections of society. These divisions continue to impact psychological development in ways that impede the alchemical processes necessary for the unfolding of consciousness. My thesis contends that the undermini

Ken Lakritz, Ph.D. 2022 THE MENTAL HEALTH FORWARD MODEL Primary care health delivery models have traditionally been organized around the assumption that both mental and physical illnesses should be managed within a medical model structure of diagnosis and treatment. Developments within the field of psychoneuroimmuninology (PNI), and the deepening understanding of the links between psychological stress and disease, have shed light on the profound interrelationships between fo

Kenneth R. Lakritz, Ph.D. 9-26-21 Never would we imagine that the effects of social media would infiltrate the world psyche in such a way as to globally encourage and reinforce and the most destructive of human impulses: social/ political fragmentation and division. This crisis of chaos and division is made even more dire given that social unity is clearly a necessary condition for a sustainable planetary future. To understand the macroscopic level of the debacle, we have

Ken Lakritz, Ph.D. has been a clinical psychologist for 34 years, currently living and practicing in the town of Sonoma, California Within each lifetime is an ongoing rhythm of death and rebirth, on the microscopic level the opening and closing of each new moment, and, on the macroscopic, a full fruition of development that leads to the peeling away of the skin, a molting of boundaries, that give way to new, ever emerging presence. With each new moment there is a gestational

Kenneth R Lakritz, Ph.D. 2023 A Whole person Approach Mental health systems serving aging populations tend to have an overly narrow lens through which to consider the needs of elders. We often view aging as a disease rather than a season of new possibilities and tasks, failing to appreciate later life as an essential phase with its own unique developmental landscape. Understandably, it has only been within the past 50 years that human beings have been living into advanced ag

Kenneth R Lakritz, Ph.D. 2022 Trauma, as a clinical concept and psychic event, is clearly in the forefront of all current psychological and psychiatric thinking. We have slowly been making strides in unraveling the mysterious processes that underlie each individual’s experience and response to so called traumatic events. In this discussion, I will explore current thinking regarding fundamental psychological dynamics in an attempt to elucidate the distinct challenges of both